


Seb the Mechanic

by speechbubble



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Car pooling for the ecologically conscious racing driver, Gen, M/M, kind of outsider!POV?, slight mechanic kink?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 19:13:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20569451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speechbubble/pseuds/speechbubble
Summary: In which Seb changes a tire, Dan is too tired to check himself, Max makes a discovery (and misses the best part)."Seriously, mate? You spend most weekends surrounded by mechanics and this is your kink? I thought it was cowboys!"





	Seb the Mechanic

**Author's Note:**

> This is pure and pointless self-indulgence, and I regret nothing. The title is a very cheap reference to the Deep Purple song Ted the Mechanic, which has fuck all to do with this story, but it a good song anyway.
> 
> I hope yous have some fun reading it :D

Max jerks as the car swerves, veering dangerously close to the side of the road, almost taking out a reflective bollard. He barely keeps his grip on his phone as he his jostled, safety belt digging lightly into his hip and collarbone. He whips his head towards Sebastian at the wheel, who wrangles the car to a slow stop as far on the shoulder of the road as he can, knuckles white with the death grip he has on the wheel, eyes wide and jaw tense. He only lets out a "fuck" along with the breath he had been holding when he has managed to bring the car to a standstill.

"Everyone okay?" Seb inquires, straining around on the driver's seat to look at Max next to him and Daniel in the back seat.

"All good," Max replies, a little winded from the surprise, but fine. Daniel makes an undignified but assumably affirmative noise that has Max turning around towards the backseat as well, just to make sure. Daniel looks a little rough and tumble amidst their bags, which have dislodged from the admittedly sloppy stowage of the safety belt, but not really worse for wear. He is untangling one of his hands from the balled up Renault team jacket he had been using as a pillow as he slept with his face leaned against the window. The creases of the fabric are imprinted on his forehead and cheek. He seems thrown off more by the abrupt awakening than anything else, still half asleep.

"The tire just blew up," Sebastian explains, voice a little scratchy, "we’re lucky this didn’t happen on the Autobahn.“ Max checks his phone for reception - only one bar, coverage in the more rural areas of Germany is a joke. "You got the number of the ADAC?"

"ADAC? Don't be ridiculous, I've got a spare tire in the back," Sebastian replies, ever the pragmatist. Max pulls a face at the prospect of changing the tire themselves, playing it up just to see the indignation on Seb's face. Sebastian just huffs in amused exasperation, pulls out a reflective vest from under his seat, ever responsible, and gets out of the car mumbling something about _kids these days_. Max and a still half-asleep, dazed-looking Daniel follow his example, climbing out of the car. When Seb tosses two extra vests at them, Max catches his with ease, while Dan's strikes him in the face, much to Seb and Max's amusement.

Sebastian waves the reflective triangle in Max's general direction.

"Make yourself useful," he instructs.

Dan, thanks to either blatant favouritism or questionable competence in his current state, is not assigned a task.

By the time Max returns to the car from putting up the triangle at a reasonable distance, Seb is already finishing lifting the car up on the small jack from the toolkit. Daniel has been degraded to a clothes rack, holding Seb's plaid overshirt while he is vaguely watching the other man with a mile-wide stare.

Seb puts on a pair of gloves with a bit of a flourish, clearly in his element, and Max can for the first time really imagine him tinkering with the old motorbikes he sometimes shows them photos of. The air is bordering on umcomfortably warm after the well-temperated interior of the car, and Max briefly shrugs out of the bright yellow vest to get rid of the button-up he is wearing over his t-shirt. Dan is still in a ridiculous oversized, brightly coloured hoodie (which does kind of clash with both his shorts and his socks) and Max feels too hot just looking at him. Maybe it's an Aussie thing. Or maybe, Max realises, following Dan’s line of sight, his friend has gotten distracted by the sight of Sebastian, crouching in front of a flat tire, arm muscles straining as he manually loosens the wheel nuts, hair starting to cling to his neck with a light sweat.

Max looks between the two of them a couple of times, and it dawns on him that Daniel really is completely zoned out of everything except watching their friend and colleague with intense focus. He isn't quite sure if the look on Dan's face reminds him more of the rare razor-sharp concentration from team meetings, or the anticipatory hunger he displays in front of a cheat meal. Isn’t that something new.

Sebastian tightens the last nut on the new tire with a quiet groan and gets up, wiping at his face and leaving an almost obligatory oil smudge on his cheek. Daniel swallows hard and shifts uncomfortably. Max almost chokes with laughter at the sheer out-of-a-romcom hilarity of the situation. He can't actually remember Daniel - for all his idiocy and friendliness and frankness in front of the press - ever being this unaware of his surroundings, or this easy to read. (He also can't remember Daniel ever staring at another man's ass the way he is staring at Sebastian's as he leans over the trunk to tidy the tools away and properly secure the blown tire.)

"Seriously, mate?“ Max decides to break Daniel out of his… reverie. „You spend most weekends surrounded by mechanics and this is your kink? I thought it was cowboys… How do you ever focus in the garage?"

Dan’s eyes widen in panic, full on kid-caught-with-his-hand-in-the-cookie-jar. He glares at Max, glances at Seb (who is still leaning over the trunk, unaware), and goes back to glaring at Max. He hisses at him to shut up. Max finally gives up on keeping his laughter in check.

"Hell no,“ he answers, "I’m going to milk the shit out of this.“

Sebastian chooses that moment to slam the trunk closed, startling both of them. He turns around to them with an accomplished smile. The grease stain on his cheek is still there. Next to Max, Dan whimpers so pathetically that Max can’t help but take pity on him and point the streak out to Seb, who thanks him and rubs it off. Max isn’t quite sure if he imagines it, but he thinks he sees a slightly devious twist sneak into Seb’s smile, half hidden behind his hand. It’s gone as quickly as it came though, and Sebastian shows off his now red but clean cheek.

"Did I get it all off?“ He asks, and Daniel nods dazedly, while Max is again close to shaking with suppressed laughter. He hurries towards the passenger side door before Dan can take a swipe at him. Once the car safely separates him from a furious (and furiously blushing) Daniel, he throws him a wink and runs his index finger and thumb over his lips, in a conciliatory _my lips are sealed_ gesture behind Seb’s back. Not waiting for any further reaction, he slips into the car.

-

This means Max doesn’t see Sebastian calmly collecting his shirt from where it’s still draped over Daniel’s arm, and casually slapping Dan’s ass when he passes him on his way to the driver’s side door. Max also doesn’t hear Sebastian tell Daniel that if he wants to play cars and mechanics, he’s going to have to wait until the kids have gone to bed, _hot stuff_.

**Author's Note:**

> ...sooo, is this an established, secret relationship, or are they just shamelessly flirting (and is Dan getting a piece of that once the kids have gone to bed)? ...we just don't know. But if anyone wants to pick up on either of those threads, I'd love to read that (I'm just too busy and/or incompetent to write it lmao).
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
